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Michelin Under Fire For Toyko Ratings

The Michelin guide has been expanding to new markets to compensate for its declining influence in Europe, where it has lost readership to the Internet and the shifting demands of consumers who no longer want their tastes dictated to them. Michelin says it sells about 1 million guides a year worldwide, of which a growing proportion has been outside Europe.

Michelin chose Tokyo to crack Asia because it is the largest and most sophisticated restaurant markets in the world. It awarded 191 stars to 150 restaurants in Tokyo; eight received the highest rating of three stars. That compares with three three-star restaurants in New York, for example, which received a total of just 54 stars.

Many Tokyoites are grumbling that the guide gave high ratings to unremarkable restaurants, prompting wide speculation that the large number of stars is just a marketing ploy. "Michelin has debased its brand," says Toru Kenjo, whose men's fashion magazine, Goethe, published a lengthy critique of the Tokyo guide last month. "It won't sell as well here in the future."

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